Sony PS4 distraction, cross-platform emphasis

For those of you who are still clinging on to the slim chance that we’ll see a next generation PlayStation console announced later this year, Sony has this week put the final nail in the coffin by once again distancing themselves from any sort of new hardware unveil in 2012.

The rumors of a PS4 console being introduced in the near future skyrocketed recently when a French Sony exec was quoted as saying that there is truth to an extent to all the rumors, but giving potential key information away that the company will be last to bring a next-generation console to the table after the Nintendo Wii U and Microsoft’s next Xbox console which we now hear may be codenamed ‘Durango’.

Now though, Mr Sony himself Jack Tretton has chimed in with some thought of his own on all of the PS4 rumors, by speaking to IGN in a recent interview. As far as he’s concerned, he believes that all the talk on the PS4 appearing this year are ‘distracting’. Unsurprisingly, he reiterated that the company’s focus remains on the PlayStation 3 and felt that the new PS Vita system ‘deserves’ a dedicated push.

He also thinks that the PlayStation 3 is now ‘hitting it’s stride’, which is particularly interesting since we are now surely edging towards the end of the life cycle before the new console inevitably arrives. We’ve said it before ourselves though, the PS3 looks far from dead at the moment and with titles on the way such as Grand Theft Auto V and The Last of Us, consumers will still pour their money into the console and keep it alive until the time is right for the PS4.

Our only hope is that Sony put more emphasis on the excellent cross-platform capabilities that they are now starting to embrace with the Vita. We saw the first instance of this with Portal 2, we’ll get our next big slice with Counter-Strike Global Offensive and then probably the icing on the cake with DUST 514. We heard earlier this week that Sony has made the move to allow the same titles to be played on PS3 and Vita with just one digital purchase, which we think is a great step ahead for the future.

Do you agree that all the PS4 speculation is distracting right now, or would you like to see a new console as soon as possible?